Tracked vs untracked shipping in Europe: 2026 prices

The tracked-or-untracked question looks like a postage question and is really a risk question. The postage gap is a fixed number you can look up. The other half — how often a shipment disappears or a customer says it did — is yours to estimate, and it decides the answer.

This article gives the fixed half for three large markets from the national posts’ own 2026 price lists, the rule that decides who pays when a parcel is lost, and a break-even formula for the other half.

How much does tracking cost extra in 2026? #

For each country we took the cheapest untracked way the national post lets you send goods, and the cheapest tracked product for the same small item. All prices are consumer prices as published on the carrier’s own site on 29 September 2026; business contracts are lower.

Three countries, three very different gaps. In the Netherlands tracking is almost free: the letter and the tracked letterbox parcel have the same maximum size (38 × 26.5 × 3.2 cm) and weight (2 kg), and the tracked one is also faster — PostNL delivers it within one delivery day, Monday to Saturday, against two delivery days, Tuesday to Saturday, for a letter.

In Germany the gap is large because the tracked step is a different product. The Warensendung is letter post for goods (up to 5 cm thick, standard transit 4 working days, no add-ons); the next tracked step is a DHL parcel with liability up to €500. In between sit DHL’s Päckchen S at €4.19 — up to 2 kg, no tracking, no liability — and the Großbrief and Maxibrief at €1.80 and €2.90.

Who pays when an untracked parcel is lost? #

You do. The EU’s consumer portal Your Europe puts it plainly: the trader is responsible for any damage to the goods from the time they are dispatched until the customer receives them. The customer does not have to prove anything; you have to show the goods arrived.

With a tracked service that proof is a delivery scan with a date, time and often a photo or signature. With an untracked letter there is nothing to show, so a "never arrived" message ends one way: you refund or send again. That is the real price of untracked, and it is paid per incident rather than per parcel — which is why it is easy to overlook.

• Genuinely lost. It happens, and without a scan you will not know which ones.
• Delivered, but the customer does not know. A neighbour, a shared letterbox, a partner who took it in. Tracking ends this conversation in one message.
• Claimed but not true. Without a scan you cannot tell this apart from the first two.

What to do when a tracked parcel does go missing — claim with the carrier, what to tell the customer — is in parcel lost or damaged: what to do as a shop.

When is untracked shipping worth it? #

Untracked pays off as long as the savings over many shipments are larger than the cost of the few you have to replace. That gives one number per product and country:

Break-even rate = tracking surcharge ÷ (cost of replacing the item + postage to send it again)

If fewer of your shipments go missing (or are claimed missing) than that rate, untracked is cheaper. If more do, tracking is. Worked out for an item that costs you €20 to replace, sent again at the untracked price:

Read it like this. In the Netherlands, if more than one Dutch customer in 122 reports a missing letter, the €0.20 surcharge would have been cheaper — and one in 122 is a low bar once you count the "delivered but not seen" cases. In Germany untracked stays cheaper unless roughly one in seven shipments goes wrong, which is why German sellers of cheap, flat goods have long used the Warensendung.

• ✓Untracked: flat, low-value, easy to replace (stickers, prints, spare parts, samples), domestic, and your own break-even rate is well above your loss rate.
• ✓Untracked: repeat customers who have never reported a problem, and free samples where a loss costs you only the item.
• ✕Untracked for anything a customer paid real money for and would chase — the refund costs more than a year of tracking surcharges.
• ✕Untracked cross-border: more hand-overs, longer transit, and a customs step with no record.
• ✕Untracked when your checkout promised tracking or a delivery date. You cannot keep a promise you cannot see.

What does the cheapest tracked option cost per country? #

On the AirPost rate card every service is tracked — all 268 domestic service-and-size combinations we listed on 29 September 2026 carry track & trace. The cheapest in seven large markets, small parcel or letterbox, including our flat platform fee:

These are not the same products as the postal letters in the first table: they are parcel labels, bought by the person who packs the order. The AirPost price is the carrier rate plus our €0.85 platform fee per parcel. For carrier rates alone at 2, 5 and 10 kg in every country, see the European shipping rates index; for how that compares across carriers, parcel shipping costs in Europe.

A second lever besides tracking is where the parcel goes: a pickup point or locker was cheaper than the door with the same carrier in most countries we measured — see pickup point vs home delivery.

How AirPost handles tracking #

With local fulfilment through AirPost, a verified person in your customer’s country holds a batch of your stock and ships each order as a domestic parcel. Because every service on the rate card is tracked, the untracked question does not come up: the tracking number reaches you and the sender in the same conversation, and with Shopify it is written back to the order.

1. 1

   Pick the format

   Letterbox (38 × 26.5 × 3.2 cm, up to 2 kg) where a letterbox service exists, otherwise small parcel. The format decides which services you see.

2. 2

   Pick point or door per country

   Under each product you choose the service per destination country. Every option is tracked.

3. 3

   Let the sender ship

   The sender claims the order, packs it and drops it off. Tracking comes in automatically.

4. 4

   If something goes wrong

   You have the scans to show the customer, and the carrier claim runs on the same tracking number.